Solving a mixture model of two-phase flow with velocity non-equilibrium using WENO wavelet methods

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this work is to present the implementation of weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) wavelet methods for solving multiphase flow problems. The particular interest is gas–liquid two-phase mixture with velocity non-equilibrium. Numerical simulations are carried out on different scenarios of one-dimensional Riemann problems for gas–liquid flows. Results are validated and qualitatively compared with solutions provided by other standard numerical methods. Design/methodology/approach This paper extends the framework of WENO wavelet adaptive method to a fully hyperbolic two-phase flow model in a conservative form. The grid adaptivity in each time step is provided by the application of a thresholded interpolating wavelet transform. This facilitates the construction of a small yet effective sparse point representation of the solution. The method of Lax–Friedrich flux splitting is used to resolve the spatial operator in which the flux derivatives are approximated by the WENO scheme. Findings Hyperbolic models of two-phase flow in conservative form are efficiently solved, as shocks and rarefaction waves are precisely captured by the chosen methodology. Substantial computational gains are obtained through the grid reduction feature while maintaining the quality of the solutions. The results indicate that WENO wavelet methods are robust and sufficient to accurately simulate gas–liquid mixtures. Originality/value Resolution of two-phase flows is rarely studied using WENO wavelet methods. It is the first time such a study on the relative velocity is reported in two-phase flows using such methods.